MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Austrian People's Party (OVP) considers it necessary to proceed with the tight migration policy amid the appointment of the new chancellor, and to keep on minimizing the influx of migrants, a spokesperson for OVP told Sputnik on Wednesday.
“There is a need to maintain the asylum policy that the government recently agreed on in order to minimize the flow of migrants and to meet the expectations of the Austrians,” Tamara Häusl said, commenting on the country’s future migration policy to be implemented after Christian Kern appointment as the new chancellor.
Hausl added that almost 80 percent of the Austrian people are in favor of the restrictive migration policy, which was agreed upon in April and is expected to come into force on June 1. According to the new law, the government will have the right to declare a state of emergency if the refugee flow rises rapidly and send migrants back if they come from a country considered safe.
Europe has been beset by a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants fleeing their crisis-torn countries of origin to escape violence and poverty.
Austria received around 90,000 asylum requests in 2015, the second-highest number in the bloc on a per capita basis, and more than 16,000 claims since the beginning of this year.
